1 I am really back...

 ...in grad school this semester. That's what I say to my husband, "I am really back in grad school this semester." Which means I am working my ass off at breakneck speed. And it's hard 'cause I now have a big fat full time job and a new spouse and a billion and one projects and business ideas I want to start...

...riffing off of Karyn's blog comment about personality types, I'll say this I am an ENFP--the ADHD (my diagnosis not theirs) of personality types. I flit from one thing to the next, one idea to the next, and one half-baked startup project to the next. This course is just getting better and better for me...

...yup, I bitched and bitched with the rest of you about structure and excessive emails. No joke, I really don't like all of the emails, still. And I need structure so I don't explode... I am spastic on the internet. It takes me forever to do something online because I have no attention span in the virtual world. For instance, it occurred to me that I installed the Digg Plugin for FireFox but had not installed it. So I dropped everything to  do that. It's funny because I still can sit down an read a book in an afternoon. I think it's the format that trips me up, but I digress...

Like, um, really, really, digressed. I just checked back with the assignment and realized I am not supposed to be babbling...but wait, I need to select an image for this post so...OK, got it; now onto the real work...see what I mean? Check out this video I am making made...another distraction that will take about 15-30 minutes 3 hours of my time before I actually get around to writing what I am supposed to...





So what did you just see? You saw me:

1. Start blogging  
2. start feeling distracted and wanting to check my email
3. decide I should record my actions instead
4. blog some more
5. remember that I did not install my most recent Firefox plugins with my Digg feature
6. install new plugings
7. check back with the class assignment to make sure I'm on task
8. decide I needed a pitcure
9. look for and insert an image
10. blog some more

What you didn't see in the 6 hours it took for me to write this post:

1. exporting the video to something iMovie would recongize
2. learning how to speed up video in iMovie (this required Google searches and watching a video on YouTube)
3. editing the video in iMovie
4. getting a -34 error when I tried to export to YouTube
5. Googling "-34 error iMovie" to search for the problem
6. finding out I ran out of HD space
7. combing through my HD looking for files to delete
8. freeing up enough space to make the video
9. Exporting it to my HD (while I was waiting for this, I went over to my other computer and checked the analytics on my blog and uploaded more DIT cake images to the Flickr account linked to my blog.)
10. Uploaded video to YouTube
11. Decided to write out my "real reflection" on paper to make it easier to organize my ideas and not ramble so much or get distracted...

So the point of the story is this: It takes forever for me to do the work in this class. In part because we are going through a lot of material and in part because I get really into exploring. And in part because the internet is no longer a text-based medium. I don't always want to express myself with text alone. OK, so point proven. On to...

The "Real" Reflection 
I will take a cue from my fellow blogger, Rick Foster, and do a run down of the good the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD:  

I have a little secret. I tend to stick with tools that work. While I am highly curious, once I find something I like, that's it. I am the type of person who orders the same thing every time I go out to eat. This class has been great for giving me an excuse to explore more. For example, I love WordPress, but I have had an opportunity to compare it with Blogger in this class. I also love Yola for quick website building, but have also explored CMSimple. Lastly, I never would have had the courage to become a wiki editor without the assignments this past week.  So in a nutshell, one of the biggest strengths of this class is the opportunity to try new things.

I also like the community. This is the first time I have had more than a handful of students in a class. Boy does it make a difference. There was hardly any per-to-peer interaction in those classes. There were just too few people. Now, I feel like I am a member of a vibrant community. Most of us have complementary skills, and it tickles me to see members of my cohort grow and gain mad skills (I'm thinking of you Shelly!)


Related to this, I have learned so much from my classmates. I so appreciate getting tips in my feedback. I am thinking specifically of Krysti's feedback about my logo and matching colors and Lucy's feedback about defining ambient in my ambient intimacy glossary word. I like being able to try new things in a relatively safe and supportive place.
 

THE BAD:
I still hate the emails, but I foolishly refuse to unsubscribe to them for fear of missing something. This is no one's fault but my own. So I will move along.

While I am happy for the weekly structure that forces me to explore new web 2.0 platforms and forums, I am still confused as to how it all fits together. This may represent failing on my part, but, I am not sure what the overall goal or product of the class is. The syllabus has a lot of vague language unconnected to any clear and measurable goals. For example, several comment have been floated around about our CMSimple site being a portfolio site. But we don't seem to be fully committed to that each week. IDK, like I said, this may be more a failing on my part than anything else. Comments are welcome in this regard.

I'm not a big fan of  CMSimple, full stop. While I appreciate the opportunity to try new things, and I understand D.I. realy really likes CMSimple and thinks its easy, I much prefer Yola for ease and WordPress for flexibility and expandability. Now I don't think everyone has to agree with me on these matters. But if I am required to build a portfolio, I would like to do it on a platform that makes sense to me, that I can expand, and that I have full control over in terms of templates and URLs. The way I see it, I am at D.I.'s mercy regarding my CMSimple site. I cannot control whether it stays up or comes down; I may or may not be able to modify the template; and if I scrape out my content and migrate it elsewhere, the duplicate content may screw up my SEO efforts.

THE UGLY
This is more a self assessment than anything else. 

I just can't spend enough time on this course to yield results  I am completely happy with. I am basically unavailable Tuesday-Friday, leaving three days to cram my work in. Don't get me wrong, I read the "Monday-Monday assignments and poke around on the internet, mulling the assignments over, but you will notice little activity from me during the week. I am convinced that D.I. and everyone else thinks I am a hack and a slacker. I've contemplating dropping because of this.


I guess the root of the problem is I am working out side of my field. Or, this field is new to me. For example, I spent six years studying American history, with a focus on the turn of the twentieth century. I can read a historical monograph in a day and grease out a five page critique about it in three hours. Why? Because in grad school I was responsible for three monographs and three papers each week. I got really really good at reading and writing quickly. And I did it well enough to fetch A's. 

I say this not to be a jerk or to brag, but to illustrate how unfamiliar I am with being out of my comfort zone. This class is hard because I am new to digital media and have not mastered it enough to do the assignments quickly and well. I am simply doing them quickly. I feel that most of my work is mediocre at best. If I were grading myself I would give myself a B. I need to mention here that I hate Bs. An A- would make me cry in grad school.


Sooooo, re-reading the above paragraph makes me realize that I have some baggage to work through. I mean really, I am an adult. As long as I am learning and meeting my own learning goals, what difference does it make if I get and A or not, sheesh! Still, I think I can try to be more consistent with my postings. I will try to build in at least an hour each evening to read posts and look at student work during the week.


THE AVERAGE
Everything else is fine... 

Collaboration image provided by:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/ / CC BY 2.0